Brush Up Your Shakespeare

Good morning to you all! To all those who survived 'Othello', 'The National Theatre', and the night, what a night it turned out to be! Congratulations to all! To mourn a mischief that is past and gone is the next way to draw new mischief on. What cannot be preserved when fortune takes, patience her injury a mock'ry makes. The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief, he robs himself that spends a bootless grief.

Sparknotes - Othello

Writing in the FT, Ian Shuttleworth reports that Nicholas Hytner’s exceptionally strong and coherent production sets Shakespeare’s tragedy in today’s Middle East. The bulk of the action of Othello takes place in Cyprus, but the wall maps in Nicholas Hytner’s production are of the Middle East and occasionally in the background can be heard the amplified call of the muezzin. This is more than simple modishness, though: Hytner has taken the contemporaneity of his revival so seriously that he consulted a military adviser, Major-General Jonathan Shaw. Vicki Mortimer’s design unfolds several distinct environments into/out of an entirely convincing prefabricated military compound. Even Desdemona’s maid Emilia is a squaddie (squadette?), but the war with the Ottomans takes second place to the contention for Othello’s soul and destiny.

The focus of public attention for this production is the two leads. Adrian Lester’s Othello is smoothly orotund, never given to declamation however much more polished his speech may be than that of those around him. In the pivotal central phase with Iago, he first breaks rhythm when the latter speaks the dread j-word: jealousy. What this gradually unlocks in Othello is not so much anger (although he has his moments of fury) as a savage bitterness, not least bitterness at himself and his supposed former delusion (it is, of course, this supposition that is the real delusion). Enough of Shakespeare, Neil McGowan!



National Theatre - Othello

'The Times' leads this Friday morning with some editorial comment on being inch perfect. Thumbing its nose at the laws of physics, an inch is not always just an inch. An inch more on the waist is easier to carry than an extra inch on your ears. An inch on her stilettos was the making of Marilyn Monroe. Dorothy Parker, when she shared a room at 'The New Yorker with her fellow wit Robert Benchley, said that they “had an office so tiny that an inch smaller and it would have been adultery”. Now we learn that an inch — barely the height of a respectable radish — is all that stands between heaven and hell.

I suppose that if I invite my Muslim friends down the pub this weekend, Sydney Grew, it potentially raises more issues than agnostic, atheist, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh or other friends. For a start, Muslims are not supposed to drink alcohol. Yet roughly one in four Westerners abstain anyway, so it is no big deal. They can always order a coke, or even a cup of coffee or tea, particularly if the weather turns cold again! Yet in my experience, my Muslim friends are least likely to come! I have to meet them at a coffee shop instead! Yet I suspect that it is ultimately worth the effort, Neil McGowan! I propose some toast: to Allah, God and Yahweh! Three cheers from kleines c, Chelsea and the legendary bb (Friday morning breakfast coffee)!



Monmouth - Borough Market

What would Shakespeare have thought of this production; that is the question . . .

Good morning to you all! To all those who survived April, congratulations! What a month it turned out to be! 'The Guardian' leads this May Day with some editorial comment in praise of … the flowing Brook: Mark Rylance's Rooster Byron is one reminder of the theatrical workshopping process of which Peter Brook was a pioneer.

Speaking at London's National Theatre on Monday, Peter Brook joked that he moved to France 40 years ago to avoid running either the National or the Royal Shakespeare Company. He then discussed the process of workshop and rehearsal experimentation by which actors first impersonate new roles and then come to inhabit them more fully. There has been an exceptional display of this alchemy on our stages recently, with Mark Rylance's Rooster Byron and Eve Best's Duchess of Malfi among the standout examples. 'The Guardian' defends thus:



Writing for BBC News, Tim Masters reports that Dame Helen Mirren may have been crowned best actress for her role as 'The Queen', but it was a "risky" project from the National Theatre that stole the show at this year's Olivier Awards. Winning seven out of the eight awards it was nominated for, 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' matched Matilda the Musical's record haul last year.

The adaptation of Mark Haddon's best-selling novel by Simon Stephens started life at the Cottesloe Theatre last summer before transferring to the West End. The play is booking until January 2014, but it could be around a lot longer if the track record of its director Marianne Elliott - who staged the National Theatre's breakout hit 'War Horse' - is anything to go by.

"It was an experimental journey, and like War Horse, we could not have done it anywhere else other than a properly subsidised theatre, because it was a risk," Elliott told the BBC backstage at the Royal Opera House, clutching her award for best director.



BBC News - A Curious night at the Olivier Awards

So the National Theatre is on something of a roll, Sydney Grew! I would go even further, however! We are privileged to be living through a quite unexpected cultural renaissance of the wider arts at the beginning of the twenty-first century. We New Elizabethans have become, once again, such things as dreams are made of! I propose some toast: to the first, the second and 'The Third'! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (Wednesday morning tea)!